Games with Style

What just sticks with you?

Over the years, some games just stick out from the crowd. Not because of a great story or innovative gameplay, but just because they have this certain style that nothing else does. My question is this: Which games would you pick?

My choices:

The Legend of Zelda series: Dueling Skeletons, traveling underwater temples, or fighting from horseback, these games never cease to feel like an epic journey.

Okami: Unique art, gameplay, music and more, this game is one of the very few I was sad to finish simply because I wanted to keep going.

The first two Command and Conquer games: Oh, come on. These games have more style in their installation than most games in their entirety. From the FMV and CG cutscenes, to the in-game art, voices, and varied units, to the awesome soundtrack, everything just fits in these games. To a lesser extant, the next three also had great style.

MechWarrior series. Barely played it an hour, but I've been trying to find it ever since. Any good similar, newer games?

Not really There was a mech combat game for the Xbox (Mech Assault AFAIK) which is a Battletech game but it's a bit more arcade-ish, not really a simulation.

There have been other Mech-like games: Chromehounds got sorta meh reviews, and there's also the Armored Core series, also for the 360. But really I haven't found a single mech game that had the same charm as the MW series.

Mirror's Edge. Say what you want, but comboing several moves at that speed is cool.

Yeah, that's why I only liked the first half of it. Hopping around on rooftops and such was crazy fun. If they kept it like that for the second half of the game, it would've been amazing. But the game wasn't built for ease of gunplay, and to throw you repeatedly into close quarters with guys and their M60s.. re-loading 20 times starts getting on your nerves.

Ultima IVStarflightPiratesEliteWing CommanderX-WingCivilizationMaster of OrionStar Control 2DoomMaster of MagicWarcraft 2Master of Orion 2QuakeStarcraftTotal AnnihilationEverquestShogun Total WarMedieval Total WarWorld of WarcraftEVE OnlineSins of a Solar Empire

Betrayal at Krondor - - - The first really immersive pc game I ever encountered was Betrayal at Krondor. Its quality partly derived from the fact that the author of the Rift War series (Feist) helped a lot in game development, making the game play like a new novelette in his story-verse, even to using the cities, cultures, characters, etc. correctly right out of his books. Many games have come along later that use some of the same stuff, even WoW, but i think the one that pioneered it was Betrayal at Krondor.

Wing Commander --- One of the things that the initial Star Wars (1977) movie did was to make all the settings looked lived in. If one looks back at earlier sci-fi flicks, everything is new and polished. Well, after all, they had just made the sets so they WOULD be new. That trick also has been used again and again since then. Consider Blade Runner (1982) and even the more recent Fifth Element (1997) and how they benefited from the same approach. Non-sci-fi flicks had frequently been gritty, but they often used real world settings, etc. The Wing Commander games brought that same lived-in look to sci-fi games. MechWarrior 2 - Mercenaries used this well, as one scrimped and plotted to upgrade and survive. Note that WC3 may have been one of the first games both to use full motion video (FMV) sequences and also to have multiple endings that depended on earlier player choices, like the superlative Deus Ex would do so well so many years later (1994 versus 2000, IIRC)

Privateer --- One of the early open-ended universe games that worked to the point of being so immersive that one was tempted to jump off the plot line and simply go play and explore.

I agree with a lot of people before me, so I'm just going to list the games that I feel have been missed.

Riven - The most atmospheric game I've ever played. The environments in the game are made with so much love and attention to detail that you feel like you could live on the islands. Everything machine and location had a purpose and a design that was so well fitted int the world that you might mistake it for reality. Riven also features a magnificient story, told almost exclusively by the world and what you find in it (a lot of journals).

The Longest Journey - This adventure game is relatively unknown, but it has such an awesome story and a beatifully crafted world that it deserves more attention than it gets. The gameplay might leave a bit to be desired, but the pure style of the game more than makes up for it. An honorablr mention also goes out to the sequel, Dreamfall, that also was quite good, but lacked some of the style of the first game.

Then I have to mention Ōkami again, simply because of its awesomeness.

Some of my earlier experiences include Wasteland, Bard's Tale 3, Mars Saga, Mail Order Monsters, Impossible Mission, Summer Games, Red Storm Rising, Gunship, and Legacy of the Ancients. Ironically, these were the days that Electronic Arts (NOT EA) actually had a soul and made good games. It was also an era that required games to be fun and play well cause that's all you really had to go on...graphics were pretty bad.

Once I got into consoles some of the more memerable ones include FF3 (US) 6 (Jpn), Zelda, Metriod, Kid Icarus (even though it was an ungodly hard game) and especially Ninja Gaiden.

Total Annihilation. How can a RTS from the mid 90's have style? With ridiculous explosions, unique units, and massive artillery pieces that shoot all the way across the map. Way better than Supreme Commander.

Warzone 2100- a ground based RTS, has pretty poor graphics, but has an IN-GAME UNIT DESIGNER. You can choose from different hull, propulsion, and weapon/support turret options. A MASSIVE amount of research, where you can think your done and then you get a whole load of stuff thrown at you. Best part- OPEN-SOURCE (FREE!!!!), and only ~50 MB ATM. It has a Skirmish and Campaign mode for SP, and has MP modes as well.

I think the most stylish game I have played (because I haven't played any Legend of Zelda games) was Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii. The graphics and music were all just fantastic and original. Most of the level design was very clever, and some of it was insanely creative.